York City man asks cop to bring lesser drug charge, has no luck

Facing a charge of possession with intent to deliver Saturday night, a York City man asked a police officer to bring the lesser charge of possession of a controlled substance against him.

But the York City Police officer didn't budge and not only charged Aiken T. Gaddist, 37, of 347 S. Penn St. with possession with intent to deliver, a felony, but also with misdemeanor charges of possession of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia, according to his charging documents.

Bail was set at $25,000 during Gaddist's weekend arraignment.

Officer Jason Jay was on patrol in a police car when, at 10:45 p.m. he saw a man, later identified as Gaddist, drop a wallet or a purse in the 100 block of Hancock Avenue. Gaddist dropped what he was carrying after he saw Jay, documents state.

Police questioned: Gaddist, and another man on a bicycle, continued on, but Jay stopped Gaddist in the first block of Cottage Place. The man on the BMX-style bike peddled off as Jay was stopping Gaddist, documents state.

Jay went back to where Gaddist dropped what was believed to be a wallet and found a digital scale and a plastic bag containing what was believed to be crack cocaine, documents state.

Police found $741 in cash and a cellphone on Gaddist, placed him under arrest and took him back to the police station, documents state.

There, he told police, "That's not my crack" and then asked Jay to charge him with possession, a misdemeanor, instead of the felony charge of possession with intent to deliver.

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Gaddist asked the officer at least twice more to charge him with the lesser charge as he was being taken to central booking, documents state.

The 2.5 grams of dropped material field-tested positive for cocaine but were handed over to state police for analysis.